“Modjeska was quite forgotten. She was a great figure. I made her into a marvelous person. The real Modjeska was a horrible racist.”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #nytimes.com
- #corroborated
Figure timeline
Susan Sontag
Susan Lee Sontag was an American writer and critic. She primarily wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp' ", in 1964. Her best-known works include the critical works Against Interpretation (1966), On Photography (1977), Illness as Metaphor (1978) and Regarding the Pain of Others (2003), the short story "The Way We Live Now" (1986) and…
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
culture · American writer, critic and public intellectual (1933–2004) · writer · film director · screenwriter · professor · essayist · novelist · philosopher · literary critic · journalist · women's rights activist · also Susan Sontag, Susan Rosenblatt, Susan Lee Sontag, Susan Lee Rosenblatt, Sontag
Born 16 January 1933 · Died 28 December 2004 · Q152824
47 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
4 photos · 1 video
Video
2001 Susan Sontag at the San Francisco Public Library
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
2026· 9 entries
“writers, but sources in the public domain”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #nytimes.com
- #corroborated
“s use of some of the same original newspaper accounts and letters.”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #nytimes.com
- #corroborated
“I have that newspaper account where Marion Coleman got her information. I have all this in my computer. It comes from a newspaper account, I think from Philadephia.”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #nytimes.com
- #corroborated
“It depends on me, whether I'm happy within myself.”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
“On American Language and Culture”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“All of us who deal with real characters in history transcribe and adopt original sources in the original domain. I”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #corroborated
- #nytimes.com
The New York Times: Two of Susan Sontag’s Besties Get a Beautiful Biography of Their Own
- #news
- #headline
The New York Times: Susan Sontag
- #news
- #headline
2024· 1 entry
The Guardian: Audiobook of the week: On Women by Susan Sontag – clear-eyed wisdom
- #news
- #headline
2023· 2 entries
The Guardian: On Women by Susan Sontag review – some sister she was…
- #news
- #headline
Los Angeles Times: Kristen Stewart is set to star as iconic feminist writer Susan Sontag in a biopic
- #news
- #headline
2022· 1 entry
Publishers Weekly: Books by Susan Sontag and Complete Book Reviews
- #news
- #headline
2019· 4 entries
The Guardian: 'The pictures will not go away': Susan Sontag's lifelong obsession with suffering
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: Susan Sontag is just the latest woman known to have had her work stolen by a man
- #news
- #headline
The Guardian: From Susan Sontag to the Met Gala: Jon Savage on the evolution of camp
- #news
- #headline
Yahoo: Would Susan Sontag Love the Met Gala’s Homage to Camp? Her Biographer Investigates
- #news
- #headline
2018· 1 entry
The Guardian: Sharp by Michelle Dean review – what do Dorothy Parker, Hannah Arendt and Susan Sontag have in common?
- #news
- #headline
2017· 1 entry
The Guardian: Stories by Susan Sontag review – the great essayist’s experiments in short fiction
- #news
- #headline
2014· 1 entry
Observer: Susan Sontag as Metaphor; a new film about the writer's life
- #news
- #headline
2012· 1 entry
Moved to off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop in 2013, and was staged into 2014
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2010· 1 entry
The city of Sarajevo posted a plate with a new street name for Theater Square: Theater Square of Susan Sontag
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2009· 1 entry
Referred to Sontag as Leibovitz's "companion", Leibovitz wrote in A Photographer's Life, "Words like 'companion' and 'partner' were not in our vocabulary
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2006· 1 entry
Made reference to Leibovitz's decade-plus relationship with Sontag: "The two first met in the late '80s, when Leibovitz photographed her for a book jacket
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2004· 3 entries
Aged 71, from complications of myelodysplastic syndrome which had evolved into acute myelogenous leukemia
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Died 2004-12-28.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #death
“Not only is Fascism (and overt military rule) the probable destiny of all Communist societies — especially when their populations are moved to revolt — but Communism is in itself a variant, the most successful variant, of Fascism. Fascism with a human face.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
2003· 2 entries
Awarded Princess of Asturias Literary Prize (2003).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded Peace Prize of the German Publishers' and Booksellers' Association (2003).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
2001· 1 entry
Awarded Jerusalem Prize (2001).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
2000· 3 entries
Awarded National Book Award for In America (2000).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Awarded National Book Award for Fiction (2000).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Sontag was open about bisexuality:
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1998· 1 entry
Michael Starenko wrote that it "has become so deeply absorbed into this discourse that Sontag's claims about photography, as well as her mode of argument, have become part of the rhetorical 'tool kit' that photography th
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1994· 1 entry
“Now the very idea of the serious (and the honorable) seems quaint,”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
1989· 1 entry
When both had already established notability in their careers
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1986· 1 entry
Sontag's mother died of lung cancer in Hawaii in 1986.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #life
- #personal-life
1982· 1 entry
Sontag said that "people on the left", like herself, "have willingly or unwillingly told a lot of lies"
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1977· 2 entries
Awarded National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism for On Photography Film Festival (1977).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Sontag published the series of essays On Photography
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1975· 1 entry
Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship (1975).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1966· 1 entry
Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship (1966).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1965· 1 entry
Awarded George Polk Award (1965).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
1959· 1 entry
To live with Fornés for the next seven years, regaining custody of her son and teaching at several universities, including the City College of New York, while her literary reputation grew
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1958· 1 entry
And contributed to the book to such an extent that she has been considered an unofficial co-author
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1951· 1 entry
Her work appeared in print for the first time in the winter issue of the Chicago Review
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1933· 1 entry
Born 1933-01-16.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth